Gophers diver Sarah Bacon wins 3-meter NCAA title

After winning her third consecutive title in 1-meter diving the night before, Gophers senior Sarah Bacon won her first 3-meter crown Friday on the third day of the NCAA women's swimming and diving meet in Greensboro, N.C.

In the six-dive finals, Bacon took the lead on her second dive and built on it with two 70-plus scores, including a 74.40 on her second to last divc. She finished with 408.60 points total to win easily. Aranza Vazquez Montano of North Carolina placed second (384.75) and Camryn Hidalgo of Georgia Tech third (356.40).

She had placed fifth in the 3-meter diving in 2019 — her highest previous finish.

But Bacon quickly asserted herself this day and was the top seed into the finals. After an opening dive of 57.60 in the preliminaries, she scored 60-plus points on her next four dives to move into the lead and then had her first 70-plus of the day on her sixth dive.

Bacon, a native of Indianapolis, took last year off from college to train for the Tokyo Olympics which were postponed to this summer. And she has continued to work hard to improve her 3-meter performance in the hope of making the U.S. Olympic team.